On the recordMarch 30, 2023
This amendment requires the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service to do very basic reporting on funding that the agency would start receiving under the bill from outside groups for processing permits. The agencies would only have to report at the end of each year how much money they got from which outside groups, not which permits that money funded. This won't do much, if anything, to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption in permitting. The section that this amendment amends is very, very bad. To me, this amendment demonstrates that some Republicans are noticing the absurdity. Instead of requiring after-the-fact reporting on outside money influencing our permitting process, why not prevent conflicts of interest in the first place? Again, the Federal Government should have sole responsibility to conduct unbiased environmental reviews, because the Federal Government is responsible for protecting its citizens. Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.
